EPA Considering Ban on Traditional Ammunition

The folks over at the National Shooting Sports Foundation are asking their members to submit comments to the EPA over proposed rules that would ban lead in ammunition and fishing sinkers. The submission to the EPA can be found at the EPA’s website. The submission requests a ban on lead in ammunition and fishing sinkers;

As provided in the Toxic Substances Control Act (“TSCA”), Petitioners American Bird Conservancy, Association of Avian Veterinarians, Center for Biological Diversity, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Project Gutpile request that the EPA adopt regulations prohibiting the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of lead shot, lead bullets, lead fishing sinkers, and other lead-containing fishing gear, pursuant to TSCA (15 U.S.C. § 2605(a)(2)(A)(i)). Such regulations are needed to protect vulnerable wildlife species from the ongoing threat of lead poisoning, as well as to safeguard human health.

Expect the usual left leaning anti eun crowd to jump all over this. Recent record low crime rates coupled with record firearms sales have blown a 10 gauge sized hole in the mythos of “gun control”. That fact, coupled with recent Supreme Court decisions on Second Amendment rights, gives gun control proposals no chance of getting through Congress. The anti-gun lobby will use this EPA proposal to attempt to limit or seriously restrict all ammunition. It has already happened in California.

The NRA has responded to this latest petition here. The attempted government over reach should be of great concern to all freedom loving Americans. While there are lead alternatives, they are costly, hard to manufacture, and aren’t as easy to reload or recycle. Firearms are useless without ammunition, a point not lost on the gun control crowd.

[Update] This post was changed to clarify and remove any perception that the idea to ban lead bullets and sinkers was EPA generated. It is not. The submission under the TSCA was filed by a coalition of anti hunting and environmental groups and the EPA must review it by law

[Update] The EPA issued a statement late Friday that it has denied a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity that had sought to ban the use of lead in ammunition. You can find that update as reported by the NRA at the NRA ILA web site